Despite a 5-4 loss on Monday night to the Atlanta Braves, the Miami Marlins continue to move toward a playoff berth.
Facing the Atlanta Braves and the New York Yankees in consecutive series at the end of this wacky MLB season is fitting, given that somehow these Marlins could still clinch the National League East and face Derek Jeter’s former team to see the light at the end of this glaring tunnel called the post season.
The Marlins have lost two games in a row and are 5-5 in their last 10 games and still somehow look like they can fend off the Philadelphia Phillies for the fifth playoff spot. Should they do that, the San Diego Padres would be their opponent.
Fun times, indeed.
“Even in defeat, the Marlins (28-26) had their magic number to clinch second place in the division trimmed to five with six games to go,” Joe Frisaro of MLB.com wrote. “That’s because the Phillies (27-27) lost, 5-1, to the Nationals. The top two teams in each division automatically qualify for the playoffs. Miami now is four games back of the Braves. One more head-to-head win by Atlanta in the series ends the Marlins’ hopes for a division crown.”
After watching this team attempt its comeback against the Braves, I have come to the understanding these next few games are going to cause me great anxiety. Who would have thought when games started in July? My fandom is showing more than my ability to put two words together.
If any of the Marlins front office or players in the clubhouse are reading this – and we hope you are – I have one request. Please don’t let me down.
There is a rule that writers aren’t supposed to get wrapped up in the teams they cover. It’s a soft wall between being a fan and doing your job. We invest time. We invest effort in making contacts and developing business relationships. And for what it is worth, statistics and a win-loss record matter. Saying goodbye at the end of the regular season is hard sometimes, knowing the baseball dynamic changes each day.
Watching other teams win a World Series, no matter how great baseball playoffs are, can become gut-wrenching.
I said the Marlins would win 30 games in this shortened format and I’m pretty close to seeing this prediction become a reality. It’s the first step in the process of a successful 2020. Then the secured postseason berth. After that, we shall see how far the Marlins can travel on a new path.
If the bridge collapses and Miami once again sits at home in October, there will be many questions to answer. It’s like Lucy Van Pelt pulling the football away from Charlie Brown. We know the outcome before the attempt is made. It also makes writers like myself sad that the common goal wasn’t met.
Here I wait to see if the Marlins can follow through on all this promise of a growing baseball organization. My hope is my excitement travels farther than September and the this baseball team continues to scratch and claw its way toward playoff hysteria.
